Share this story

You’re roused early from cold sleep. The ship’s hibernatorium—and likely the remainder of the ship—is running on half power. There’s a body nearby. More accurately, there’s a body all over. For a moment, your sleep-fogged brain assumes somebody has splashed BBQ pork all over the floor and walls. Nope; that’s the crew member who was supposed to be on watch while everyone else slumbered.

Welcome to Nemesis, a board game with strong (but decidedly unofficial!) echoes of Ridley Scott’s Alien. It raised millions on Kickstarter—but is it any good?

At the table, everybody can hear you scream

Oh, they’re plenty good at tension. Setting up a climactic play over multiple turns, waiting to see if somebody undoes all your hard work by taking that card you’ve been eyeing, wondering whether your spouse is secretly Hitler... these are the moments board games create almost effortlessly. One time, I realized I’d been holding my breath during Exploding Kittens. Here was a game I wouldn’t ordinarily confess to playing, and yet my entire body was rigid was apprehension. (Granted, this was because I hoped the game would end as soon as possible, but still.)

Nemesis takes that tension and weaponizes it. From its very first moments, this is a game about the terror of the known, the half-known, and the unknown. Such is its dedication to that prickle you get when somebody threatens to jab you in the kidney that the game even features player elimination. Note that I’m saying Nemesis “features” player elimination, not that it suffers from it. Getting knocked out of a three-hour game within the first 40 minutes is a design decision, not an oversight. Sure, it’s a bummer. But don’t you think Executive Officer Kane was bummed when that chestburster did precisely what its name implies? I’ll bet he was totally bummed. I’ll bet he wishes he could have stuck around until the ending and helped Warrant Officer Ripley jettison that bastard alien out the airlock. I’ll bet he thinks it’s unfair that a single lapse of judgement resulted in having his sternum ruptured by an unknown lifeform. Too bad.

Game details

The same thing can happen in Nemesis, leaving a puddle of raspberry jelly and a freshly hatched creeper where once stood a human being. So it goes when you don’t head to the surgery room as soon as a space monster roots around your esophagus with its multi-jawed proboscis.

Of course, even this doesn’t come across as truly horrific. When your character makes too much noise and summons a queen from the depths of the ship’s utility level, you won’t kick your chair to the floor and leap from the table. Maybe you’ll swear. But scream? That’s a tall order.

Still, when it comes to tension, there’s plenty to go around here. And while you’re creeping through corridors to avoid drawing the attention of the game’s aliens, Nemesis is leveraging an even more potent agent—its players.

Fires, broken computers, and the cold hard vacuum of space

At first, the business of surviving feels pretty much as you’d expect. When you start, you don’t actually know the specific layout of the ship. The helm is located up front and the engines are back at the stubby end, but beyond that you can’t seem to recall whether the hibernatorium is adjacent to the cafeteria or the escape pods. Is this amnesia? Awakening sickness?

OK, it’s a little silly—even on a regular airline flight they take pains to point out the exits, and there you’re just sitting in a plain aluminum cylinder rather than a sprawling space vessel—but the gameplay in Nemesis actually benefits from this sense of dislocation. For the most part, your job is to uncover the ship, scrounge together the stuff you need to survive, and ensure you get home with all your bits attached. This usually entails checking the engines, fixing some stuff, maybe reentering the ship’s coordinates, and climbing back into hibernation. But because the ship’s layout is unknown, you’re feeling your way through the dark. Nothing is certain.

The obvious problem here is the aforementioned aliens, called “intruders,” and Nemesis smartly pitches them as unknowns. Successive plays see you growing more accustomed to the differences between creepers and adults, breeders and the dreaded queen, but the aliens’ aura of threat and mystery is never fully dispelled. For one thing, they lack firm details. You won’t find any stat cards or damage pips. Instead, their behaviors are dictated by card draw. Does an encounter with an adult intruder pose bodily harm, threat of contamination, or the possibility of a new hitchhiker in your stomach? In each case, the answer is “maybe.” Will a shotgun take apart an adult in one hit? Possibly, but also possibly not.

Even worse, the buggers appear at random from a draw bag as your exploration of the ship makes more of a ruckus. This gives every decision some bite, especially when you need to reach a room that’s hemmed in with noise tokens, you’re already hurt, and you suddenly remember just how many monstrosities have been added to the draw bag over the past hour. When your life is on the line—that is, your elimination from the game—do you really need to accomplish your objective?

One of the game's many characters.

Behold the sprawling ship!

An unpleasant confrontation.

You won’t know who to trust

Speaking of objectives, there are more subtle (but also more important) shakeups to the game. Much like in Dead of Winter, each character has their own goal card. Two, actually. At a certain point, each player is forced to choose one over the other; this decision comes after you’ve explored a portion of the ship, but not so early that the decision isn’t a bit of a gamble. Even tougher, you’re always given both a personal and a corporate objective. Maybe you want to burn the intruder hive or pilot the ship to Venus so the company can take the aliens into its possession. When the time comes to pick your goal, you often push for whatever seems most within reach

I’m not superstitious, but it almost goes without saying that objectives have a spooky way of flip-flopping in the middle of each play, with your long-discarded option suddenly seeming like a good idea compared to whatever you actually picked. Murder a fellow shipmate? What were you thinking?

That’s right—murder. Not directly, of course. But it’s possible to shut your companions behind doors, spark fires, draw intruder attention to a nearby shipmate, or vent somebody into the vacuum of outer space. This is the true source of paranoia in Nemesis. The unknown is all around, but the real terror is the unknown right beside you. There’s no guarantee anybody at the table will behave in such a manner. But in Nemesis, there’s no guarantee they won’t. That somebody isn’t an android or a company stooge. That they aren’t nursing a hidden grudge or a desire to leave everybody behind while they board an escape pod. Without trust, where are we? Trapped in a burning shower room with an alien who’s got limbs like switchblades, that’s where.

True, Nemesis has the occasional catching edge. That’s deliberate. Rather than elegant, the game is evocative. Don’t let the piles of plastic fool you—this is one of the most carefully arranged storytelling games of the past year.

Share this story

30 Reader Comments

Those that backed this kickstarter and selected 2 waves of shipping (paid more) have had this game since 2018. I backed it but only did 1 wave so I've had it since late last year. I painted all the core box figures. They have an optional pack that gives plastic corpses, eggs, doors, and escape pods. With all this painted it's quite the graphic board game.

There is a co-op option where you don't have to worry about any traitors. It's how we have played so far, we've one and we've lost - turns out being infected when you hibernate you will make it home... but be dead so you lose.

There are also expansions that change up the enemy type. No experience with those yet.

Note that I’m saying Nemesis “features” player elimination, not that it suffers from it. Getting knocked out of a three-hour game within the first 40 minutes is a design decision, not an oversight. Sure, it’s a bummer. But don’t you think Executive Officer Kane was bummed when that chestburster did precisely what its name implies? I’ll bet he was totally bummed.

Common wisdom may very well be wrong in this instance and player elimination may make Nemesis a great game, but the article does an absolute shit job here of why it justifies fucking over a 2+ hour social activity for some poor unlucky sods.

Note that I’m saying Nemesis “features” player elimination, not that it suffers from it. Getting knocked out of a three-hour game within the first 40 minutes is a design decision, not an oversight. Sure, it’s a bummer. But don’t you think Executive Officer Kane was bummed when that chestburster did precisely what its name implies? I’ll bet he was totally bummed.

Common wisdom may very well be wrong in this instance and player elimination may make Nemesis a great game, but the article does an absolute shit job here of why it justifies fucking over a 2+ hour social activity for some poor unlucky sods.

If you actually get bumped that early (quite rare though) you actually take over the AI and become the aliens intruder.If two players die... don't worry the game is over very soon.

If you got killed, you didn't play very well (which is understandable first play through)It doesnt matter what character you have, you just don't fight them. YOU WILL NOT WIN, and that is by design.It is not a battle game, or even a tactics game. It is a survival/horror/stealth game

Ammo is scarce, you are heavily out powered, and oh yeah, your crew mates may be trying to kill you. Not kill everyone, just YOU.And to make it interesting, you cannot directly shoot/kill another player. You need to set up a killing scenario. (creature, fire, airlock, infection, etc)

Surviving is actually somewhat likely after a few breakthroughs, but Winning is HARD.

The only "advantage" you have is that you can keep the number of Intruders down by staying quiet. Unfortunately, that probably means you are too slow to meet your objectives.You can blitz your objectives, but you'll be larva chow pretty quicklyThere are endless tough decisions-Do I move quickly, or quietly-Do I help the engineer fix the engines, or blow him out the airlock-The pilot says they set a course for Earth. Do I trust her, or go double check-Do I put out that fire, or try to heard a creature into the burning room

I did find a little humorous the obvious lengths they went to avoid anything even remotely copyright-yThere are no Aliens nor aliens in the game, only Intruders.The figures are very alien-y. but not quite xenomorph-y (and good quality)

I love that the game was reviewed, and this is definitely not a bad article.But given the level of depth this game has, I just find it a bit short. A detailed review could be 3 pages.

Pledged this game with the 2 wave shipping and I also got some form of painting for the miniatures (sunburst). It looks gorgeous.

The gameplay is *really fitting with the theme*, you feel the tension with every step or shoot.

I got the expansions recently, but I'm having problems playing those due to having 1 year old.

Main problem with the game is that setup. Takes long. The tear down is fairly long too.One thing I loved is that they released a tabletop simulator mod (very high quality), so you can test the game, it was released before the Kickstarter finished, which was amazing. It includes all the features of the board game (not sure about expansions).

It's pretty deep in strategy, lot of choices every move. Really recommend exploring it for anyone that is interested.

I bought this game through the kickstarter and played it 10+ times with a range of players ranging to "this is my first non-monopoly boardgame" to Gloomhaven fan.

I'm a huge fan of Nemesis.

The themed game play is fantastic. Anyone who is familiar with Alien and the concept of being trapped on an unknown ship with intruders and crewmembers of questionable motives will be right at home.

As you play, you natively create your own story. We've had the soldier who initially helped the crew but eventually betrayed us and set the ship to self-destruct and took an escape pod off. We've had 2 survivors in a sea of dead crewmates trying to enter hibernation, while a queen attacks - the pilot died, and turned out the hibernee was actually infected, and died as well post-game.

My main complaints about this game is that bad RNG at the start can make the rest of the game incredibly difficult (we fixed this with house rules) and I absolutely hate the fact that the intruder "total health" changes with every successful attack.

I just received a massive expansion that introduces physic aliens, and an "aftermath" mini-game in the likes of Alien 2 where a different group of characters try to discover what the hell happened to the original crew. Looking forward to trying both.

Maybe I'm getting jaded from all the CMoN Kickstarter games but I have to wonder how much of that $150 price tag is because of adding the uber detailed minis? I'm sure they look amazing when painted but is that worth an extra $50-60 when cardboard standees would do? Sure offer to bling it up as an add-on like Gale Force 9 does with Firefly but please don't kill my wallet just to get on the ride.

Maybe I'm getting jaded from all the CMoN Kickstarter games but I have to wonder how much of that $150 price tag is because of adding the uber detailed minis? I'm sure they look amazing when painted but is that worth an extra $50-60 when cardboard standees would do? Sure offer to bling it up as an add-on like Gale Force 9 does with Firefly but please don't kill my wallet just to get on the ride.

I believe the $150 price tag is the secondary market now. The core game was $90 in the kickstarter but wasn't made available for purchase after.

I bought this game through the kickstarter and played it 10+ times with a range of players ranging to "this is my first non-monopoly boardgame" to Gloomhaven fan.

I'm a huge fan of Nemesis.

The themed game play is fantastic. Anyone who is familiar with Alien and the concept of being trapped on an unknown ship with intruders and crewmembers of questionable motives will be right at home.

As you play, you natively create your own story. We've had the soldier who initially helped the crew but eventually betrayed us and set the ship to self-destruct and took an escape pod off. We've had 2 survivors in a sea of dead crewmates trying to enter hibernation, while a queen attacks - the pilot died, and turned out the hibernee was actually infected, and died as well post-game.

My main complaints about this game is that bad RNG at the start can make the rest of the game incredibly difficult (we fixed this with house rules) and I absolutely hate the fact that the intruder "total health" changes with every successful attack.

I just received a massive expansion that introduces physic aliens, and an "aftermath" mini-game in the likes of Alien 2 where a different group of characters try to discover what the hell happened to the original crew. Looking forward to trying both.

I actually love the mechanic where alien health changes with every attack, it's so immersive. "Did it die? That was my last round, I hit him in the face, he should have died!" - wrong, intruder weak point is xyz instead!

How does this compare to something like Pandemic? I've been longing for a good coop board game but so far every game has lacked tension, as in, playing and completing the game is usually very anti-climatic whether you won or not.

How does this compare to something like Pandemic? I've been longing for a good coop board game but so far every game has lacked tension, as in, playing and completing the game is usually very anti-climatic whether you won or not.

Very different play style. The invaders can be down right deadly. You really have to plan how you move around the board. In true coop the random board serves as a puzzle to solve and finding the rooms you need to beat your objectives. There is 1 per player and you have to complete them all. There is a time limit before the ship enters hyperspace.

I have pandemic legacy and enjoyed playing, I find nemesis to be rng like pandemic, but even more on pins and needles trying to avoid the invaders. If you do trigger one then you pull a token from a bag and this bag is changing as you develop it each turn.

If pandemic had randomly placed cities you had to travel to first before you know what it is. That is kinda how I'd compare it to nemesis. Nemesis has fire that spreads and malfunctioning rooms. Too much of either and you lose too.

I've got over 20 plays of this (including 2 with the Carnomorphs expansion) and it's absolutely amazing. Easily the best thematic game of last year (technically came out at the very end of 2018 but most people didn't really get to play it until 2019).

It IS hard and despite what someone said above you can totally die due to terrible luck even when you're being very smart and careful, but it doesn't matter -- it's always entertaining as hell. Everyone I've played this with loved the hell out of it.

In true coop the random board serves as a puzzle to solve and finding the rooms you need to beat your objectives. There is 1 per player and you have to complete them all. There is a time limit before the ship enters hyperspace.

I really love that mechanic.

To elaborate for others:You quickly find that you need to decide, as a team, how to explore the ship.When you move 'as a group' you only trigger 1 noise for your groupIf you move individually you will trigger a noise, for each person

You can spread out and uncover everything quickly, but that results in MANY intruders appearingYou can move as a group to limit their numbers, but that uses alot of your limited time. Also everyone is trying to decide when is just the right time to break off and do their personal mission, without raising suspicion

Those that backed this kickstarter and selected 2 waves of shipping (paid more) have had this game since 2018. I backed it but only did 1 wave so I've had it since late last year. I painted all the core box figures. They have an optional pack that gives plastic corpses, eggs, doors, and escape pods. With all this painted it's quite the graphic board game.

There is a co-op option where you don't have to worry about any traitors. It's how we have played so far, we've one and we've lost - turns out being infected when you hibernate you will make it home... but be dead so you lose.

There are also expansions that change up the enemy type. No experience with those yet.

So far I have only tried the semi cooperative version. We have only played 3 times, but this has ended up be nearly totally co-op due to objective choices, so we need to try true co-op to make things a little harder. I too only got it shipped as one wave, so we have not had the game that long. No players died during the game so far, but some lost the game at the end by failing missions.

Setup is really a killer- it seems like half the rule book is devoted to this, and I found watching the youtube video really helpful.

Not tried the expansions or any of the expansion characters. Does anyone have any feedback on these?

This is the third I’ve read reviewed here, the first being the 7th continent when it went back to kickstarter for a second printing, and the second being about Rome (glory to Rome? I remember the story behind the release ring a bit epic).

It’s obviously a little annoying to read a review of a game that I won’t be able to buy, however interesting it sounds. I’m more curious though about how common it is as a business model?

This is the third I’ve read reviewed here, the first being the 7th continent when it went back to kickstarter for a second printing, and the second being about Rome (glory to Rome? I remember the story behind the release ring a bit epic).

It’s obviously a little annoying to read a review of a game that I won’t be able to buy, however interesting it sounds. I’m more curious though about how common it is as a business model?

I’m also feeling annoyed. It’s a reasonable expectation that a product review would generate interest in the product.

It’s obviously a little annoying to read a review of a game that I won’t be able to buy, however interesting it sounds. I’m more curious though about how common it is as a business model?

It's probably pretty popular, at least for new games, because the Kickstarter model matches the market for board games, especially for those not already backed by a publisher/distributor.

Board games have a large upfront capital cost, but pre-selling a bunch of units solves that problem without having to put up the capital yourself - and, if it doesn't raise as much as you hoped, at least you didn't waste so much; just your time and any prototypes created. There's relatively little basic research to be done - a lot of work, perhaps, but little chance that what you want to do won't work out at all (although, you could just make a really bad game).

As for "why review a game that's already been sold" - that's one way they get reprinted. Or picked up for mass-production. Part of the point is to draw traffic and keep you interested, which doesn't require that you be looking to buy anything at all; at least not this game right now.

This is the third I’ve read reviewed here, the first being the 7th continent when it went back to kickstarter for a second printing, and the second being about Rome (glory to Rome? I remember the story behind the release ring a bit epic).

It’s obviously a little annoying to read a review of a game that I won’t be able to buy, however interesting it sounds. I’m more curious though about how common it is as a business model?

I’m also feeling annoyed. It’s a reasonable expectation that a product review would generate interest in the product.

This game IS in retail, it's just hard to find because of the popularity and limited quantities. What made you think otherwise? Granted, I don't think it's hit retail in a lot of countries, but it is or will be available to purchase.

The exceptions are the expansions, which they stated during the Kickstarter are not guaranteed to see retail release -- it depends on demand.

Not quite sure what you mean by 'practical' here, sorry, but my ten yr. old has no problem with this one (he plays other campaign-style co-op games with me though so perhaps is used to the overlapping mechanics, variable player actions, Gloomhaven, Imperial Assault, etc.). We play Nemesis in full co-op mode only. I like it a lot because, when it seems unfair, you more easily remember that THAT is the point, compared to other swingy games.